The North Dublin Differential Response Model (DRM) was developed in the aftermath of a seminar held by the then Children‟s Act Advisory Board in May 2008. This seminar involved a series of presentations, including presentations on the Minnesota differential response model and a presentation on the Foyle Trust „New Beginnings‟ model. Following this seminar a series of meetings and communications took place which led to the decision to pilot the differential response model in North Dublin.

This report is the first of three reports that will be produced on the pilot of the DRM in North Dublin. There will also be an interim and final report. At an overall level, the evaluation has two aims: first, to describe the development of the model and its implementation; and second, to establish whether the intended outcomes from the implementation of the model have been achieved.

This report contains an introduction with background to the project, the methodological approach and the structure of this report. Chapter 2 contains some brief information on the Minnesota approach and detailed information on the design and development of the North Dublin DRM. Chapter 3 sets out the findings including data from the baseline survey on staff‟s expectations for the project and successes, challenges and improvements that relate to organisational issues, the model itself, practice developments and partnership between agencies. Chapter 4 includes an update on measures taken to address early challenges as well as a set of areas identified by the evaluators as requiring ongoing attention for the development of the project.